


Moving Forward

by wirewrappedlily



Category: Teen Wolf (TV)
Genre: Gen, It is a sad thing but also a happy thing, wrote this on my iPod
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-06-08
Updated: 2013-06-08
Packaged: 2017-12-14 08:16:34
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 762
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/834691
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/wirewrappedlily/pseuds/wirewrappedlily
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>"When you let your hair start growing..." Sheriff Stilinski doesn't need to finish for Stiles to know what he's saying. </p><p>"I was...I was busy. I barely realized." He swept his hand over the newly-shorn globe of his head, looking at the grass bursting forth from the death it covered up. "You still wear the ring." </p>
            </blockquote>





	Moving Forward

**Author's Note:**

> I have feels over the Stilinski men. Mostly that I want to cuddle them until it's alright.

Stiles had never considered just how much strength it took to move on fully from losing someone like he lost his mother. Derek had come as close as Stiles thought anyone could, and he still haunted the ashen halls of the house in which his family had burned. Of course: Derek had fallen in love with him, and he with Derek, and that in itself was a step closer to being whole than Derek had been in a while. But now Stiles was faced with his father asking him to let her go a little more: the both of them standing with her grave--her memory--between them. 

"When you let your hair start growing..." Sheriff Stilinski doesn't need to finish for Stiles to know what he's saying. 

"I was...I was busy. I barely realized." He swept his hand over the newly-shorn globe of his head, looking at the grass bursting forth from the death it covered up. "You still wear the ring." 

It's a hollow accusation, if it is an accusation at all. Stiles knows, now, in an odd way. He knows what the first love feels like: and he gets sick at the thought of it being torn away like it was for his dad. "I'll always be married to your mom, kid. I never agreed to letting death do us part." 

Stiles swallowed thickly, his throat clicking, "You won't let her go, why should I?" 

"I'm trying, son. I try every day to let her go a little bit more. I loved her so much, though." 

"I love her, too." Stiles hoped ferverently that he didn't sound as desperate and snappish as he thought he did. "Remember that one summer she had us over plant the garden to make it a jungle next year?"

The sheriff smiled, "She knew by the next summer, you'd be so wildly into The Jungle Book that you'd need it." 

"She let me dress up as Jack Skelington for Halloween, and she dressed up as Sally Stitch, badly done Christmas wear and all." Stiles smiled, "She made me Boogey-Man ice cream for my birthday and Scott wouldn't eat it." 

"If I remember correctly, neither would you." 

Stiles shrugged, "I knew what boogies were and where they came from. And I ate the first three attempts to get the right green." 

The sheriff laughed lightly, "Then there was the year she took you to the library with her every day. You were convinced you were like Matilda, and you'd be able to move things with your mind if you tried hard enough."

"I kept picking books too big for me and then Mom would have to tell me what every third word meant." Stiles shook his head, "She's why I love to read." 

"Me, too." The sheriff agreed easily. "I miss you two reading to me in the summertime."

Stiles twitched into a smile. "I'm sorry I've been so busy."

"You grew up, kid. Not all the way, but enough to let some things go and some things come." 

"I don't want to grow up any more I don't want to let anything slip through my fingers." 

"That will never stop, son. I've already missed so much of you." 

"Then let's not miss another thing, dad. I dating Derek Hale. I think I love him, and it scares me to, sometimes, because I know he'll leave someday."

"I haven't looked at anyone since your mother died, and I don't think I ever will, even if I heal." 

Stiles shrugged, "I kind of figured. But if you do meet someone? I won't blame you or begrudge you."

"I like Hale. I wish he wasn't accused of murder, but he's...he's a good kid. Strong." 

Stiles barked a laugh. "He likes you, too. Even though you arrested him." Silence stretched, and both sets of eyes fell to the grave between them. "I think she would've been mad at you for that." 

"She had the strangest instincts, but they were invariably right. You remind me of her like that." 

"And you...you listened. Will you...?"

"I've learned my lesson, Stiles. I'll listen as much as I can."

"That's as much as I can ask." Stiles laughed a little manically. "I try to be you both, you know." 

The sheriff nodded slowly, smiling sadly as he raised his left hand and slipped his ring down his finger. "You jump, I jump. That work for you?" 

Stiles sniffed mightily. "I'm still not letting anyone call me that name."

The sheriff let out a choked laugh, "Son, neither would I."


End file.
